1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to disposable unbrellas and more particularly to an umbrella of the type made of inexpensive material such as corrugated board or other planar material such as cardboard and which may be folded to a compact flat condition, when closed, so that it may be conveniently stored or arranged in a stack and dispensed from an article dispensing machine in the manner that newspapers and shopping bags are dispensed.
Prior to the instant invention, there have been attempts at producing disposable unbrellas from simple planar materials, but such prior devices have not achieved acceptance in the trade and by the consumer because they are awkward to use, or they are too expensive to produce.
The umbrella in accordance with the invention can be made on automatic paper handling machines having gluing equipment and folding mechanism. The parts or elements of the umbrella are simply die cut. The operation of the disposable umbrella is simple and foolproof. The umbrella is easy to hold when open, easy to store when closed, and operates in a manner in which the consumer may expect it to operate.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Of the prior art known to applicant, U.S. Pat. No. 1,464,830, granted to Reid et al and other art in Class 135, Subclasses 19.5 and 20, are believed to constitute the most relevant prior art. To applicant's knowledge, only the Reid et al patent mentioned above discloses structure resembling the structure disclosed in the present application. That resemblance resides in the pleated construction of the canopy members of Reid et al and that of applicant, but there the resemblance ends in that the operating handles, as well as other features of the two structures, are so different that the respective operations thereof are radically different and obviously distinguishable from each other. In Reid et al, portions of the canopy and/or canopy support are connected to a slide or ferrule extending around the handle for sliding operation therealong. The umbrella construction according to the present invention includes neither a slide (or ferrule) nor a handle over which such a member may be slid in operation.